On those farms or estates on which the convict-servants are treated with kindness, and at the same time with firmness—and I am happy to state that the number of such farins throughout the territory is considerable-they will often evince as much devotedness in their master's service on occasions of emergency as is ever shown by free servants in the mother country. An alarming fire happened to break out on my brother's farm during one of the years of drought, which, communicating with the upper branches of a number of lofty forest-trees in the immediate vicinity of a range of farm-buildings, containing property to a considerable amount, threatened for thirty hours in succession to destroy both the buildings and the property they contained. The exertions of all the convict-servants on the farm to extinguish the flames were zealous and unremitted, and it was only through these exertions that the property was saved; one man having had the very jacket he wore half-burnt in the fire, while another, for his equally laudable exertions, received ticket of leave from His Excellency General Darling, on being recommended for that indulgence by his master.

The influence of religion, I am sorry to acknowledge, is scarcely ever taken into account by the great majority of the settlers of the colony, in their procedure towards their convict-servants. Divine service is performed regularly every Sabbath by a few of the more respectable proprietors-in some cases according to the forms of the Church of England, in others according to those of the Church of Scotland-certainly, however, not in the proportion of one case out of every five, perhaps ten,

Not a few of the settlers weigh out their servants' weekly rations and settle their farm-accounts on Sunday; while in many instances the men are allowed to cultivate ground for themselves on the Sabbath, on the plea that they would probably be doing something worse if they were not so employed; and no account is taken of the manner in which they spend the day, no attempt is made to induce them to spend it in a way conducive to their spiritual welfare. In short, Sunday is the day appropriated by a great proportion of the settlers for paying and receiving visits, for dining any where but at home, and for attending to any thing but the concerns of religion. The influence of such procedure on the general morality of the territory, and its evident tendency to counteract the benevolent designs of His Majesty's Government for the reformation of the convict-population, may be easily conceived.

From the preceding details it will doubtless appear evident to the reader, that it is not only quite possible for a respectable family to live comfortably in the midst of a number of convict-servants, but that kind and judicious treatment will in all likelihood render even such servants obedient on the one hand, and highly profitable to their master on the other. For although there is nothing more common in the colony than to hear masters exclaiming against the idleness and the insolence, and the discontentedness and the villany of their convict-servants, I have seen enough to induce me to believe that the fault is most frequently on the other side. In fact, there are comparatively few masters in the colony who manage their convict-servants with the requisite discretion.

When a convict or prisoner (for that is the colonial phrase) becomes free, either by serving out the period of his sentence of transportation or by obtaining a pardon, he employs himself in the way in which he is most likely to succeed in the colony; and if an industrious man, the experience he has already gained in the country speedily enables him to find eligible employment. The only difference in this respect, between a person who has thus acquired his entire freedom and a ticket-ofleave holder, is, that the latter is confined to a particular district, and is liable to lose his ticket for various petty misdemeanours,—as for drunkenness or disorderly conduct, which would not affect the standing of a free subject, while on the other hand he can neither hold property, nor sue and be sued in his own name.

During the last six or eight years twelve or thirteen convict-servants, who had been assigned to my own relatives in the colony, obtained their freedom, either absolutely or conditionally, chiefly on my brother's farm; and as we had only lost sight of one of them up to the month of June last, an account of their subsequent history and present circumstances will serve as an instance of the actual working of the system of transportation. It is a favourable instance, I acknowledge; but I have reason to believe that other instances equally favourable have occurred on other agricultural and grazing estates in the colony, although it must be confessed that the result is generally much less favourable.

The first of the number was a Scotch radical, and had been one of those misguided men who attempted

to revolutionize the mother country during Lord Castlereagh's administration, in the year 1819 or 1820, and were taken with arms in their hands at Bonniemuir near Stirling. Having been a weaver in Scotland, and finding that there was no employment in New South Wales for persons of that occupation, he learned the trade of a house-carpenter during his term of bondage, and, shortly after obtaining his freedom, married a native of the colony, who had been a maid-servant in my family for two or three years. He afterwards purchased, partly I believe with borrowed money; an allotment of ground in the town of Sydney, for which he paid about a hundred pounds, and on which he has since built a neat cottage, in part of which he now resides with his family, earning, I presume, about two pounds a week as a mechanic. The Scotch radicals were all sentenced to death, and had afterwards been transported for life; but in virtue of an Act of Parliament relative to Scotch convicts, passed during the reign of Queen Anne, which, however, has recently been repealed, they all obtained their liberty in the colony at the expiration of seven years. Political offenders of this kind are doubtless not to be considered as felons; but all the other cases I am about to mention were of the latter description.

The second of the number was an Englishman, a rough-carpenter and painter by occupation. On obtaining his freedom he married a young woman who had arrived in the colony free, and had also been for a considerable time a maid-servant in my family. He now re

sides in Sydney, and works as a journeyman mechanic, being a sober, industrious man.

The third was an Irish Roman Catholic, a convict for life. He was assigned to my relatives on his arrival in the colony in June, 1824, his occupation being that of a tailor. In the year 1830 he obtained a ticket of exemption, and afterwards a ticket of leave. He married a native of the colony, the daughter of a Roman Catholic family of convict origin, and he is now well employed as a tailor on his own account in Sydney, having two or three journeymen and apprentices. He is a sober, industrious man.

The fourth was a bricklayer, a peaceable, industrious man, from one of the midland counties in England. This was the individual whom, I have already mentioned, my relatives had lost sight of; but they had reason to think favourably of him from his conduct while in bondage.

The fifth was a Scotchman from Glasgow. After obtaining his freedom, he was employed for some time as an overseer on my brother's farm at a salary of £25 a year, exclusive of rations, &c. He is now in a different situation, and has a salary of £40 a year.

The sixth was an Irishman—a Roman Catholic, I believe. He is now employed as a hired overseer in charge of my brother's sheep and young cattle, at a grazing farm about thirty miles from the one on which he resides.

The seventh was an Englishman. He is now employed as a hired overseer on the farm adjoining my